Ipad App reviews

About manaspatil

I am an avid technology geek who can thrive on latest gadgets and core technological know hows. I have started this blog to deep dive purely on ipad and ios apps.
Tablet is soon going to revolutionise the virtual world and it seems eminent that we understand the pros and the cons as we travel through the journey of its evolution.
By education I hold a bachelors degree in computer engineering and a masters degree in advanced software and telecommunications and by profession a consultant to a technology company.

Though Apple safari is one of the best browser, google chrome and its interface comes up as a very strong alternative competitor browser. Goggle has provided the chrome for ipad which is quite stable and supportive browser especially during the iOS6 times when apple is getting rid of google maps and other google OOTB(out of the box) apps.

One can be sure that the browser meets with the minimum expectations of the user and have been thoroughly tested to work efficiently on all google applications.

Lets have a small tour of the browser.

Welcome Page

The welcome page showcases your most visited pages on the front screen with iconic tabs.

At the botton you can see the options for your saved bookmarks and google chrome sign in.

Clarity,precision and issue
Chrome has a very simple and clear interface and portraits all sites with elegance and precision.
Never observed any site glitches or webpage issues on chrome.

Search
As usual chrome adds the browser feature of a strong search user interface. When you try to type anything on the address bar the search suggestions automatically come up from the google search. This is a very strong feature which is helpful in avoiding a visit to google.com

Key board for quick key is additional feature on google chrome.

Multiple Webpage tabs
None of the browser provides this functionality as good as chrome does. There is small button at the right of each tab for addition of new webpages.
Features –
– Steady and strong web page tab addition
– The tabs could be moved and there positions changed but holding on your required tab.
– Navigation to the tabs is by scrolling it which helps.

Incognito mode
Google Chrome adds a new feature of incognito or invisible mode for your web navigation not to appear in history and no cookies are stored.
This could be accessed via the settings option and also when you try to open any new link.

The application is extremely user intuitive and easy to use. The first page a shown above showcases all the various categories of news. On click of every category we get a host of latest news and facts which could be browsed as per our choice.

Utility and Accuracy –

All the news is just a redirection from renowned and latest sources and which is also showcased at the bottom of the page. The information is well segregated as per categories from various news sources, magazines around the world.

Cost –
The application is absolutely free of cost though at times we feel the need to read the fill articles by major magazines which are cut short since they are provided as paid services by them.

My excitement about the latest IOS 6 version was short-lived as apple decided to promote its products more than satiating their customers.
Though disappointed, I shall try to provide an unbiased review.

Facebook Integration

Apple Maps

Mail

APP Store

SIRI

Cloud Improvements

Miscellaneous

Facebook Integration

Facebook integration has its own pros and cons.
You can now integrate your apple id with your facebook id.

This means that apps like photos, contacts, calendar could be shared on facebook with a single click.

Integrate Facebook on your iDevice –

Just login here and you are good to go.

How does this help me ?
Ahh you can now share your photos, from your apple photos app…
Similarly a host of other apps are integrated.

It also brings out other features like , liking apps, status update from notification center.

Apple Maps – ( biggest impact change in ios6)

With the Andriod OS , apple sees google more of a competitor than partner it seems. Apple has acquired a couple of mapping companies and partnered with mapping services like yelp.The result is an Apple map app. Though the 1st launch is much handsome than the primitive days of google maps it has its own lacking points.

I would rate this as a major change, as Maps is heavily used app.
Users still have access to google maps through browser.

1st look –

The interface is clean and clear and the performance of app is fast.

3D Satellite look –

The 3d look and manual navigation is quite easy and user intuitive. The look and feel of buildings and structure is quite handsome.

Pros –
– Good application from its 1st attempt.
– A competition for google would make both apps better.
– 3d navigation and directions are proper.
– fast and intuitive.
– partners with tom tom and yelp.
– turn by turn directions

Cons-
– search at times does not give proper results
– lots of countries are still missing all the features.
– the app needs lots of improvements.

Mail

Though a lot of mailing apps are competing on ios, i prefer the default mailing application.
IOS6 does add some important features, but those were more of missing features in previous app.
No good improvements as per expectations.

VIP Contacts –

This gives an option so that you do not miss out mails from important people.

In App attachment…. A missing feature…

APP Store –

App store has come up with a brand new look which is good but a bau enhancement which does not bring in any new utilities for the user.

There are host of some good features added to the app store –
– updates shown on app store and their progress bar.
– a popup when you click on app.
– cleaner interface

SIRI –

The much hyped, disappointing app.
Apple decides to bring it only on the new IPAD, not even IPAD 2, which has no good reason but performance which is ridiculously fooling the user.

This has been really a good improvement and enhancement to its features. You can now store your photos and documents on icloud, something which would really help users to store and use important documents and photos on the move.

It took me 20 mins approx to download the ios 6 and another 15 minutes for its installation.
There is an auto upgrade option with the new IOS.
UPGRADE –
1) Go to Settings.
2) Software Update.
3) Update your os.

Do not forget to put you ipad on charge while you upgrade.
Review of iOS 6 to follow soon.

Though Apple Apps Store has featured an apps starter kit which contains a collection of applications there are alot more other promising applications which should be in your possession.Before I go into a detailed review of all the apps, I would wish to provide some of the important categories of apps and a few examples within every category.

Social Networks –

Most of the social network sites have ipad apps which are easy to use and provide a host of features to suit tablets.
Eg – facebook, linkedin, twitter.
IOS6 claims to have these applications inbuilt in the OS.

Books –
The books related applications are one of the most advantageous features of ipad.
– host of books related apps like ibooks, kindle,readwhere.
– Most of the ebooks are much cheaper than paper books.
– They do not take any storage place and your ipad can get you access to thousands of books.
– Features like search , dictionary are at your finger tips.
– Comics are at your finger tips which used to be not so easy to get hands on some years back.

Games –
I am adding games and entertainment on one tag.
Games do not need to be given any introduction. Temple Run and Angry birds are one of the must have.

Music and Entertainment –

There is no need to teach apple in the music domain. They pioneered the ipods to eradicate the walkman and the mp3 players race giving sony a run for its money.The ipod features are still intact and also has a host of new applications to suit your needs.
– The sound quality of the ipad is unbeatable and it can always be docked for amplifying to wider audience.
– INTERNET RADIO – This is fast coming up as a category of apps where a internet broadcast of songs is held. This provides a good variety of songs.
– Any streaming song apps are upcoming fast like soundhound, saavn, etc.
– A number of video and movie streaming applications are available like netflix,OPlayerHD.
– Watching movies is another unique experience on ipad.
( this 1 image of dock is taken from other site )

News and Magazines –

This is another fast upcoming category with innovative concepts put up my various applications.
– Must try new apps like flipboard, google news. It collates different news and information and presents in an innovative format.
– Most of the newspaper publications have their own apps for ipad.
– Newstand is an apple app which can be used to read magazine subscriptions.
– The ecopy of most papers and magazines are cheaper and easily accessible and opens up a host of applications to users.

Misc –

There are a host of other must have apps for Apple Ipad.
Some of the recommended apps are
– Apple Pages
– Wikipedia
– WordPress – All these blogs are written on ipad wordpress.
– Photography – This has a host of apps for editing photos.
– Messengers and Browsers – These are another category of Must have apps.
– imo messenger
– microsoft office lync
– chrome browser, opera browser

The above covers most of the essential category of applications and I would review one app at a time from each of these categories.

Having lost my craze for the iphone, I was skeptical wether the Ipad would prove to be another lacklustre with time. However after spending more than 6 months on the device it seems that apple has by far succeeded in envisaging a new category of device to not only entice its customer but also to start another corporate race to achieve superiority.

IPAD as a Gadget –
Apple Ipad revolutionises a new category of devices progressing from the turing machines -> super computer -> personal computer ->Laptops ->Tablets and is surely here to last long. I have avoided to name some of the trivial failures of the digital industry like personal diaries and net books.
With 241.2×185.7×8.8 mm ( in between the small notebooks and fullscape notebooks) weighing 601g with the legacy one home button, top on/off switch and 2 cameras, mic is a valued possession.

First Impressions –

Overview –
The Apple Ipad 2 is an extremely user friendly application which does not come with any manual and all the features are very user intuitive. It does not have a start and shutdown ( not detailing the hard shutdown) and remains in a standby mode which awakes with a press of home button. It is fast with no lags, multi-touch,multi tasking with background run for songs. Pre loaded with essential apps like music,maps,videos,youtube,contacts,photos,camera.

Gestures –
Ipad understands gestures due to the multi touch functions. Lets have a visual demo of the same as below –

I am only showcasing the extra gestures, apart from the usual scroll up , down and side ways, zoom in & out which we all are fimiliar with.

– switch application

– close application

– go to main menu

– App Store –

Apple controlled app store is something which really makes it stand out to its competitors with amazing set of every growing applications.
Book Apps , Games , Maps, Weather, Navigation, Writing, Sketching, Photo Editing, Music, Social Networks, News, Mail, Stocks,Productivity … It just continues..

Pros –
– Portable Computer and Much more.
– User friendly and intuitive interface.
– Large number of available applications
– Very good battery Life
– Quick startup and standby, no waiting time.
– reduces the bulky disadvantages of a laptop.
– No lags even with heavy games

Cons –
– Mail application needs various improvements, like attachment addition,etc.
– Storage is only central or on common apps like drop box
– Better camera, which is upgraded in next version.
– Missing Flash support, the biggest disadvantage.